Lucasfilm Names Kathleen Kennedy Co-Chair As Successor To George Lucas

BREAKING… Kathleen Kennedy has been named co-chair of Lucasfilm. Founder George Lucas will become co-chair of the company’s board and stay on as CEO. As part of the deal, seven-time Oscar nominee Kennedy will step down from her post as co-head of the Kennedy/Marshall Co production company, leaving it to Frank Marshall to run.

The move seems a bit bizarre. Kennedy/Marshall days ago made an overall TV deal at CBS, and Kennedy has produced big Steven Spielberg films while Marshall has The Bourne Legacy coming. Lucas, by comparison, seems to mostly continue to find ways to squeeze revenue out of his tired Star Wars films. He excutive produced the passion project Red Tails (Anthony Hemingway directed), which was not a box office hit and seems to be veering toward retirement or making personal films the way his pal Francis Ford Coppola does now. Lucas has all the money he needs, but it seems unclear exactly what Kennedy will be running. We were unable to get clarity on what will happen to Lucasfilm or Kennedy/Marshall, as we were told Kennedy would be unavailable to speak with Deadline. Kennedy/Marshall has a first-look deal with Spielberg at DreamWorks and sources have said they expect it to be business as usual under Marshall. But Kennedy used to be one of the smarter producers in town though her recent movies have underperformed at the box office to the detriment of her reputation: nevertheless, the loss may have an impact.

The duo had produced Oscar nominees War Horse, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, and Seabiscuit as well as the Bourne series together. The company is currently in post on Spielberg’s Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, which also is expected to be a box office disappointment. Kennedy and Spielberg also teamed for the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises. Kennedy’s announcement comes on the heels of the Star Wars creator’s musings about retiring from the company to make more experimental films. “George and I have talked about the enormous opportunities that lie ahead for the company, and as George moves towards retirement I am honored that he trusts me with taking care of the beloved film franchises,” Kennedy said in the release that just went out. Here it is in full:

SAN FRANCISCO-Lucasfilm Ltd. today announced that Kathleen Kennedy will become Co-Chair of Lucasfilm. In an effort to move forward with his retirement plans, George Lucas will work with Kathleen Kennedy to transition into her new role. Lucas will become Co-Chairman of the Board of Lucasfilm and continue as CEO. Micheline Chau will remain as President and COO of Lucasfilm, and continue to focus on the day-to-day operations of the business.

“I’ve spent my life building Lucasfilm and as I shift my focus into other directions I wanted to make sure it was in the hands of someone equipped to carry my vision into the future,” said George Lucas. “It was important that my successor not only be someone with great creative passion and proven leadership abilities, but also someone who loves movies. I care deeply about my employees—it is their creativity and hard work that has made this company what it is today. As the company grows and expands I wanted to be sure the employees of Lucasfilm have a strong captain for the ship. I also care deeply about our fans and it was important to have someone who would carry on the passion and care that I’ve given the films over the years. So for me Kathy was the obvious choice, she is a trusted friend and one of the most respected producers and executives in the industry.”

Director Steven Spielberg said, “George’s prescience is once again proven by his choice of my long time producing partner, Kathy Kennedy to co-chair Lucasfilm. Kathy has been a member of both of our families going into a fourth decade so it does not feel like she is going to another galaxy far far away. She will get just as much support from me with Lucasfilm as George has given both of us all these years.”

“George is a true visionary,” said Kathleen Kennedy. “I’ve seen him build Lucasfilm from a small rebel unit in Northern California to an international fully integrated entertainment company. I’m excited to have the chance to work with such an extraordinary group of talented people. George and I have talked about the enormous opportunities that lie ahead for the company, and as George moves towards retirement I am honored that he trusts me with taking care of the beloved film franchises. I feel fortunate to have George working with me for the next year or two as I take on this role—it is nice to have Yoda by your side.”

Seven-time Academy Award nominated Kathleen Kennedy is one of the most successful and esteemed producers and executives in the film industry. As a producer she has an impeccable record with a robust filmography working with such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, Clint Eastwood, David Fincher and Gary Ross. As a testament to her standing in the film community, she previously held the position of governor and officer of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and currently serves as a member of the board of trustees. She is also a former President of the Producers Guild of America.

Kathleen will step down from her role at The Kennedy/Marshall Company, shifting her responsibilities to partner Frank Marshall. The Kennedy/Marshall Company is currently in post production on LINCOLN, directed by long time collaborator Steven Spielberg whom Kennedy also produced for on the INDIANA JONES and JURASSIC PARK franchises, and THE BOURNE LEGACY, written and directed by Tony Gilroy and produced by Marshall. Under the Kennedy/Marshall banner, the pair has produced such Academy Award nominated Best Picture films as WAR HORSE (six nominations), THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (thirteen nominations) THE SIXTH SENSE, (six nominations) and SEABISCUIT (seven nominations), as well as blockbusters including the BOURNE series and THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN. Marshall will oversee the company’s current slate of projects and continue to expand it via their development deals with DreamWorks and CBS TV Studios.

33 Comments

Does anyone know– JOHN CARTER caused turmoil at Disney. Is this Lucasfilm stuff the result of RED TAILS?

No One Of Consequence • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Pretty sure George LUCAS is not being forced out of LUCASfilms over a movie that grossed $50 million against $58 million in cost.

HappyDance • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

The Clone Wars cartoon has a tremendous following with kids who buy the video games, Lego kits and toys; kids who’ve never sat through Star Wars are crazy for anything Anakin. Forget fanboys, Lucas is making Care Bear-Barbie-Hot Wheels type sales just from Clone Wars.

I hope he’ll keep making those passion projects he’s been talking about for decades, he’s certainly earned the right to do as he pleases.

Aleric • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

You realize that Lucas has little if nothing to do with the Clone Wars series. When he does force his hand and make them actually use his ideas we get the crappy Clone Wars movie that was a major disappointment to fans of the animated series. Basically the Animated series is 10 times better than the prequels with more compelling characters and interweaving character storylines and plots.

So Lucas making “Passion Projects” means he will find other people to direct the projects then take credit for them like he did with the original three movies.

john • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

That is a nonsensical notion. Lucasfilm is a multi-BILLION dollar operation based on the STAR WARS films alone. How could one $50 million dollar budgeted film cause any sort of turmoil?

I just hope George does indeed make an experimental film. He has been talking about doing so for a decade and yet we keep getting more Star Wars and Indiana Jones stuff instead.

Horst • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

More great work to come. George couldn’t have made a better decision. Congratulations to both.

BD • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Not at all. Lucasfilm is a privately owned company. George Lucas doesn’t answer to anyone but George Lucas.

RED TAILS had long been his planned swan song from mainstream filmmaking.

Realist • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Dude, Red Tails was a drop in the bucket for Lucasfilm in terms of cost. It’s like one meal at Mastro’s for them.

John Whorfin • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

“I’ve seen him build Lucasfilm from a small rebel unit…”

…to the Empire.

Sorry, couldn’t resist! ;-)

Congrats to Kennedy, and kudos to Lucas. This is a great, smart move for the future of the company.

John • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Thanks to the phenomenal global success of the “Star Wars” franchise over many decades, George has always been and continues to be the total master of his own fate. This is exactly what it says it is. Lucas wants to retire. “Red Tails” has nothing to do with it.

Lucasfilm is a company in turmoil, based on every account I’ve heard. They couldn’t open “Red Tails,” they couldn’t open “Phantom Menace” in 3-D, they can’t sell “Red Tails” internationally. They really need some guidance like this. What’s fascinating though is how INSIDE Kathy Kennedy is. She’s great, no doubt about it — but is Lucasfilm, which hasn’t exactly made inroads in anything they’ve done lately, ready for this kind of change, and is Kathy Kennedy ready to experience that company’s rather unique, insular way of doing things? I mean, the biggest experience their marketing head had before he started there was at the TV Guide Channel.

markLouis • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

And what is your guess: Will Miss Kennedy be employed at Lucasfilm for LESS than a year or MORE than a year?

(My guess is less.)

Matt Weller • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

And I also heard those marketing Star Wars don’t have real Studio Marketing experience because “Star Wars” is all they know. LAME.

Miss Kennedy: please start over and bring senior executives with their teams to market the brand. Lucasfilm needs a shake up.

Mark • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Kathy will bring class, style and excellent taste to her new role. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

DanZee • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Gee Whiz! I hope Kennedy will start making more movies under the Lucasfilm banner. George Lucas has the “not invented here” attitude towards filmmaking. Other than Howard the Duck (which I kinda like) and the experimental American Graffiti sequel, it’s all been all Lucas all the time. Heck, Lucasfilm should have bought Kennedy/Marshall and brought Frank over too. Lucasfilm could be a real studio. And of course hire directors like Michael Bay, Peter Jackson, Robert Rodriguez to make their own movies in the Star Wars universe! Let’s get creative here!

Aleric • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

You actually used Bay and Rodreguiz as examples of “Quality”? They are two of the most over hyped and underwhelming movie directors to date….. oh wait they will fit perfectly next to Lucas.

Oansun • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Expected to be a disappointment? How can you expect something to fall below expectations? If you expect it to do poorly, it’s not a disappointment.

Roger,Roger • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Whoa, this is some major news, and one that I honestly didn’t expect to happen, at least not yet. Great move by Lucas, I must say. Kennedy is a class act, and knows her stuff well. In addition to being a successful film producer (along with her husband, Frank), she is a good family friend to not just Spielberg, but Lucas himself. I can’t think of a better person for the successor to Lucasfilm.

Some of you may be wondering what’s ahead for the company–Lucasfilm does have various projects on the table:

-The popular “Clone Wars” TV series is ramping up Season 5 soon
-An untitled animated CGI musical (Kevin Munroe was attached to direct, a few years ago)
-Indiana Jones 5. More than likely not to happen, but they’re probably still kicking around ideas
-Lucas’ supposed “small, personal, experimental” films he keeps talking about
-Live action Star Wars TV series (supposedly titled “Underworld”) This project has been in development for several years now, and seems to have stalled. From what I hear, scripts have long been written and are sitting on shelves ready to shoot; Lucas and McCallum insist that the technology to make the show is still too expensive for the TV format.

Perhaps a co-production on the Star Wars TV show with Kennedy/Marshall could be in the works? They do have those TV deals…

Regardless, great fit for the company, and I’m eager to see what they come up with during the next several years. Also, really looking forward to Lucas’ “small, personal, experimental” films.

* “Clone Wars” has seen a huge erosion in ratings; you just saw “Hatfield & McCoys” get 14 MILLION people watching on History Channel, for crying out loud, and “Clone Wars” gets less than 2 million per episode, most of whom are young kids, and its ratings have gone down steadily — season 5 of ANYTHING is on the downward slide, “The Simpsons” and “60 Minutes” excepted

* That untitled animated musical? My friends up there say, think “Happy Feet” meets “Happily Never After,” but without the appeal — what was the last CGI musical that hit and that wasn’t Disney?

* “Indiana Jones 5″ — did you SEE “Indiana Jones 4″?

* Those “small, experimental” films from a 70-year-old filmmaker will certainly be interesting to see; the market for “small, experimental films” is clearly huge, particularly for a director whose name resonates so strongly with audiences, it alone sold “Red Tails” …..er, wait. Hm.

* Is this the same TV show that has been promised since 2004? That has never made forward progress? Well, good luck with it. Maybe the same 2 million people who watch “Clone Wars” each week will watch this, too, propelling it into the top 150 of TV shows.

I just want to reiterate, I think Kathy Kennedy is terrific. I’ve had the pleasure of working with her on a couple of projects, and she is involved, creative, interested, supportive, encouraging. But Lucasfilm is SO stuck in 2005 that it may be hard to UN stick it.

Mr. Pricklepants • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

That’s great news.

Maybe this means that we’ll finally get the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy in pristine quality on Blu-ray.

JohnDoe • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Never gonna happen. I wish it would, but it’s not.

Cuppajoe • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

I always assumed that George was grooming Rick McCallum for this role. What else is there for Rick to do now that the live-action series is years away from even starting production? I’m not sure if he has anything to do with the Clone Wars series. Hopefully Kennedy can spearhead Star Wars 7,8,9. I know George has no interest, but maybe he’d be willing to turn it over to her. I think the producer of Indy, Jurassic Park, ET, Minority Report, and AI could more than handle the gig. If he could write out the synopsis for each film, then hand it over to her for development, that would be ideal. What a new Star Wars film really needs is to be written and directed by someone other than GL. There are so many good candidates out there, it would be amazing to see a Star Wars film on the level of The Empire Strikes Back again.

Jar Jar Stinks • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

This makes no sense. There are no franchises for her to supervise.

Indiana Jones will eventually have one more movie then it’s history.

Star Wars is kaput because the live-action TV series is too expensive.

What exactly is she going to do there? Buy scripts for Lucas to spend money making? That won’t happen George is loathe to spend any of his 3 billion dollar fortune he likes making money he hates spending money.

Vanilla Gorilla • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

This makes good sense. Lucasfilm just needs professional management. Lucas’s suggestion that the SW TV show is just not affordable yet is nonsense. Nobody wants to make that show as long as he’s involved. I wish her luck.

Hopefully this will mean new directors for STAR WARS, so that the franchise can evolve the way that ST and BSG have evolved.

Andrew • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

I’d like someone to re-do the entire six parts into something comprehensible and then go beyond into 7 -9. They did 8 HP in roughly 10 years and by the time they’d get to 7 the scripts for those three would be written. Same basic story but removing the things that fans hated (we can all agree on Jar Jar and maybe even the Ewoks) and cleaned up the dialogue a little (ok a LOT). Would make another few billion and expand and extend the franchise into new directions. And yes, like BSG did.

Han Solo • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

The only way Star Wars 7 8 9 will ever happen is after Lucas goes to that great Jedi playground in the sky. Once he’s dearly departed then Star Wars rights will be sold to 20th Century Fox. He probably already has this contract written up. News Corp. will have to pay George’s heirs five billion dollars then they can make as many movies as they want to.

It’s a shame because his original plan was to do the prequel trilogy starting in 1987 to 1993 then in 1997 we would have had the sequel trilogy starring Hammill and Fisher and Ford. George screwed up his master plan due to his own ego. It would be great to see SW 7 in 2017 but I doubt Kathleen can convince George to approve this. He will tell her to wait until he’s gone then it will happen.

Don • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

i liked Red Tails. It dealt with an important part of US History.

Aleric • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Except for the fact that it was historically inaccurate and amatuerish. Not to mention it was basically the same film HBO made 10 years ago.

Uber Critic • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

Isn’t it obvious what is going on here? She is really acting as president of Lucasfilm, and he, CEO. She will make all of the meetings and review most of the paperwork, and he will co-sign it. You see, it appears that…in order to lure her to take-over Lucasfilm, this is a major quality control move, and she has extreme quality control in her films. Red Tails was horrible, as was the last Indiana Jones film…and the Star Wars prequels as well as Return of the Jedi–all were terrible!!! Lucas has only made 2 great Star Wars films, and 4 bad Star Wars films, he is killing the brand. She is being brought in to rescue the brand, and I think this means that we will see another Star Wars trilogy, a new Indian Jones film, or two…and new franchises born of Lucasfilm, like for instance, I would love to see Lucasfilm create super hero related films, and young adult book films. I mean, why didn’t Lucas buy Marvel? Why didn’t Lucas make Harry Potter, or Twilight, or The Hunger Games??? Why didn’t he hire James Cameron to nurture the Star Wars films, or a young turk like Joss Whedon, for that, or similar projects, etc.??? He has the money, why not? Expect to see Kathleen Kennedy on a vast talent search, one designed to prep Star Wars for the next generation, from movies to live-action TV series, and to create various new film and TV franchises under the Lucasfilm brand banner. I am really excited about this, and all of the major possibilities ahead!!!

Trama • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

To Jar Jar Stinks and those questioning this move, it seems to be a win-win for both sides. Kennedy walks into a situation where she can develop and produce material with the backing of Lucasfilm’s bank account. As long as Lucas and his exec team are on board, the financing is there.

Lucas wins because he gets someone who can move these franchises forward in the right way and continue to cultivate and monetize them in a way that builds the fan base and keeps the company financially stable. I imagine within the next year, we’ll hear news on the live action front for both Star Wars and Indy – though it probably go in a different direction than what was previously discussed (no Son of Indy, for instance).

Boba Fett • on Jun 1, 2012 11:14 am

She’s has no emotional ties to anyone….she’s there to clean house on her own terms. Too many execs have been there way toooo long.